Personal musings on Israel, Jewish matters, history and how they all affect each other

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Hamas Applauds Goldstone

The Goldstone Report did contain some criticism of Hamas, even if limited and muted. You can see why the Fatah-controlled PA wished the UN to discuss it and act on it, since it bashed both Israel and Hamas - a win-win situation for the PA. Alas, realpolitk intervened, and the PA realised there's a downside, too, so last week they pulled their support for continued UN deliberations on the report.

Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas prime minister in the Gaza Strip, on Monday accusedAbbas of betraying the Palestinian people and of being an accomplice in theIsraeli plot to neutralize the Goldstone report. At a specially convened pressconference in Gaza, Haniyeh went on to call Abbas' actions "unprecedented."

When a group that was purportedly even-handedly criticised by a report, castigises the fellow who managed to have further discussion quashed, it says something about how they understand the criticism. It seems to me that Haniyeh is saying, loud and clear, that the report was never even-handed, it was anti-Israel, even if there was a small fig-leaf of criticism against his side, too.